John McCain blames the Benedict Tom Cotton letter ‘splaining our Constitution to Iran on the weather:
“It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm. I think we probably should have had more discussion about it, given the blowback that there is.”
There you have it, people. The world’s greatest deliberative body, until a few flakes fall from the sky, inducing panic — and treason.
Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight.com gives Jeb Bush and Scott Walker each a 25% chance of getting the nomination. He gives Marco Rubio 12%, Rand Paul 9%, and Chris Christie 5%.
I give Paul and Christie 0%.
I’m no fan of Mitt Romney, but Mittens was right when he looked at the GOP field and was not impressed. The field is certainly wide. But deep? Not so much.
First of all, aside from entertainment value, you can safely ignore Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Ben Carson. None of these guys is going to be the 2016 Republican nominee. Okay, maybe if Hillary finds a magic lamp in some Upper East Side antique store… But let’s assume Alladin isn’t Ready for Hillary.
Ted Cruz probably falls in that group too. Just because you breathe fire, doesn’t mean you’re going to catch fire. “Clueless” and “obnoxious” aren’t high on the list of what voters look for in a candidate.
As for his fellow Texan, Rick Perry, he’ll do better than 2012, being off the pain meds and all. So he’ll be able to remember a list of three. Hell, maybe he’ll do four or five. But he still comes across as dumber and goofier than George W. Bush. He’ll have a less bizarre and humiliating, but still unsuccessful, go this time around.
As for Scott Walker and Marco Rubio, the eyes have it. Watch a clip of Scott Walker with the sound off and just look into his eyes. Not a helluva lot going on there, he’s the poster boy for “dumb look.” Rubio? Watch the water grab in the SOTU response and look at the absolute terror in his eyes. If he panics over a sip of water, how is he going to fare in a room with Putin? Vlad, by the way, wouldn’t give a damn if he needed a sip of water — or vodka — during a speech. Anyone going to snicker at Mr. KGB? I think not. I don’t entirely write either off the way I do the others — Walker could unite the Establishment and the Tea Party and Rubio has some foreign/defense policy chops (especially compared to Walker) in an election where the Mideast Morass will feature prominently. But really, neither one has what it takes.
Chris Christie? Mittens knows more about him than we do from his Veep vet in 2012, and Mittens didn’t like what he learned. Skeletons aside, Christie won’t wear well, we’ll be sick to death of him long before the NH primary. Mitt has been gone just a few days, and Christie is already spouting nonsense about vaccines. When his mouth isn’t full of food, it’s full of bluster and BS.
We come to Jebbie. Mitt looked at him and saw a much less successful version of himself as a businessman. But as a politician, Jeb is far less awkward and off-putting than Mitt. He doesn’t make you cringe. He’ll be the grown-up on the debate stage. He’ll have all the money he needs.
So there you have it, America. A “wide and deep” field — of one.
From Politico:
“Gov. Rick Perry is inviting hundreds of prominent Republican donors and policy experts to a series of gatherings next month that are intended to rebuild his damaged national brand and lay the foundation for a potential 2016 presidential campaign….
The small-group sessions kick off Tuesday and Wednesday in Austin with a pair of lunches and dinners held in the governor’s mansion wedged between policy briefings at the nearby office of Perry senior adviser Jeff Miller. In all, Perry’s team expects he will meet in person with more than 500 major donors and bundlers from around the country in December as well as a slew of operatives, Republican National Committee members and policy experts.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/rick-perry-2016-campaign-113210.html#ixzz3KU9lYWbo
So can he remember a list of three things this time around? Will he write them on his hand like Sarah Palin? He’s already stolen her idea of using glasses to try to look smart.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says that President Obama’s action on immigration is just like when FDR sent Japanese Americans to internment camps during WWII.
Now we know the theme song for Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign — “If I Only Had a Brain” from the Wizard of Oz.
The results in the Senate are not, as many are proclaiming, a victory for the GOP establishment, but a big win for the Tea Party. Yes, Karl Rove and Reince Preibus got them to don sheep’s clothing for the campaign, but they will govern as the wolves they are. Take the issue of Personhood — that a fertilized egg has the same constitutional rights you and I do. Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis, Tom Cotton, Steve Daines, and Joni Ernst all believe that.
On the one hand, you might see it as bad news to have more crazies in Congress. And a Tea Party senator like Joni Ernst can do a lot more damage than a Tea Party congressman like retiring Michele Bachmann, since one of 100 is far more influential than one of 435. But the good news is that these new senators aren’t going to shut up for the next six years (or even two) and will hurt the GOP with their extremist views. They will be baggage for the 2016 presidential nominee.
Having Republican control — especially batshit Republican control — of both houses of Congress hurts their White House prospects. Voters will pause before turning the entire government over to this GOP, you need someone who can at least veto the wingnut stuff.
So a GOP-controlled Congress helps the Dem presidential nominee. The Dems also have a good chance of taking back the Senate in 2016. They’ll have the young/minority voters who don’t bother to show up for mid-terms, and they’ll have seven states up that went GOP in 2010, but for Obama in 2008 and 2012 — New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
If the Dems win the White House in 2016 and take back the Senate, what then? Not much. Even a President Elizabeth Warren would have to face a GOP House, so a progressive agenda would be DOA.
Our best shot at actually getting stuff done? That would be a Republican president with a Dem Congress. The Dems will work with a Republican prez, the GOP won’t work with a Dem.
So Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) made the rather obvious and understated comment that the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African Americans.” Yeah, you could say slavery and lynchings and discrimination in every aspect of life are kind of “unfriendly.” Or you could be the GOP and go absolutely batshit. It’s always a safe bet that the higher the reading on their outrage meter, the less there really is to be upset about.
Truth? They can’t handle the truth, whether it’s history, economics, biology, climate science, or physics. We already have a Congress and state houses filled with morons and on Tuesday we’re going to get even more.
A new WMUR Granite State Poll shows incumbent Dem Sen. Jeanne Shaheen leading GOP carpetbagger and Cosmo centerfold Scott Brown by eight points among likely voters, 50 to 42.
Is she about to do to him in New Hampshire what Elizabeth Warren did to him in Massachusetts? Will he move to yet a third state and try again?
“Well, we know that if the Republicans win the majority, all Senate committees would have Republican chairs. The Energy Committee, for instance, might be run by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a moderate who is in the pocket of oil and gas lobbies. This would be a dramatic change from the current situation in which the Energy Committee is run by Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, a moderate who is in the pocket of oil and gas lobbies.”
Gail Collins, NYT
Georgia GOP Senate candidate David Perdue says voters should choose him over his Dem opponent Michelle Nunn because her father, former senator Sam Nunn, voted in 1978 to return the Panama Canal.
Embattled Farmers 